


you put your arms around me and i'm home

by coexistancelou



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Boot Camp, M/M, The X Factor Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 08:01:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1597505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coexistancelou/pseuds/coexistancelou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>and harry is so engulfed in his own thoughts trying to stop the hairs on the back of his neck from sticking up straight and his constant uneasiness that he barely notices when he splashes a bit of his urine on the cinnamon haired boy next to him.</p><p>“oops!” is all he can muster out, and he’s fairly certain his cheeks flush beet red. “s-sorry!” and see, this is what he means when he thinks he can’t do a single thing without a mistake.</p><p>“hi,” the boy says in a friendly high pitched voice, chuckling with squinted eyes gazing at  him as he tucks himself in and buttons his trousers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you put your arms around me and i'm home

harry dreams of sold out arenas and screaming crowds. echoing chords of composed songs ringing throughout venues. voices singing along to his words he’d thought up and a microphone that makes him louder than his conscience.

and now he’s in the middle of boot camp and he’s closer than ever before to making that dream to making it big here on the show a reality and he knows that in order to move onto the judges houses he can’t make any mistakes.

and that’s the thing that scares him the most, because he’s sixteen years old and that’s about the only thing he can do.

over the course of the past couple days he’s been put to perform dance routines that he’d undoubtedly failed miserably. he’s always had two left feet and he hopes it’s not enough for him to be scratched out as a contestant.

the judges had also watched him belt out an unconfidently shaky cover on oasis’ “stop crying your heart out” and when he adds those two jobs he’s done with the other things he’s been made to do he gets an uneasy feeling in his stomach that he can’t quite differentiate between nausea or an overwhelming wave of nerves.

he imagines what will happen if the judges do send him home when boot camp is over. he knows that there are more than three times the number of contestants in this round than can move on to the next round and the odds aren’t exactly helping his nerves. especially when he knows that there are dozens of people who have proven that they are more worthy of staying in the competition than him.

in his mind, that dream of stadiums and arenas filled up like ants in their mounds and albums that skyrocket to the top of the charts in every country that seemed so close only days before was slowly slipping from his grasp.

now he’s daydreaming of what seems a nightmare of heading back to cheshire in shame of being rejected earlier than he’d hoped for. he’d go back to carving designs into wooden desks in class and spending nights procrastinating on homework while watching reruns of old sitcoms, and wondering if everything would have turned out differently if he’d reached those notes of that song a bit more surely or if he’d gotten a few of the dance moves correctly without tripping over himself, and he really doesn’t want that unarguably more logical and realistic dream to become a reality.

suddenly the whole situation becomes a bit too much for sixteen year old harry and he just needs to calm down before he’s assigned to another test that he’ll fail again, and he murmurs an excuse to his mother, anne, and older sister, gemma, before he storms off to the nearest toilet.

heading off somewhere alone has always been soothing to harry. sometimes he just needs to be stuck with his thoughts and himself without any interference from anything from the world around him and he’ll be alright in no time.

so when a floppy haired boy around his age with cerulean eyes enters the bathroom, he forces himself to try to ignore his presence as he tries to relieve himself at one of the urinals.

you’re going to nail this next task.

you’re not going to make a single mistake.

you’re going to amaze the judges and everyone in the uk who’s watching the show.

you’re going to make it.

and harry is so engulfed in his own thoughts trying to stop the hairs on the back of his neck from sticking up straight and his constant uneasiness that he barely notices when he splashes a bit of his urine on the cinnamon haired boy next to him.

“oops!” is all he can muster out, and he’s fairly certain his cheeks flush beet red. “s-sorry!” and see, this is what he means when he thinks he can’t do a single thing without a mistake.

not even urinating for god’s sake.

“hi,” the boy says in a friendly high pitched voice, chuckling with squinted eyes gazing at  him as he tucks himself in and buttons his trousers.

harry looks down to the dark stain in the form of a stripe on the boy’s jean pant leg.

the boy giggles as he notices harry’s gaze and he buttons himself up and his tan face crinkles up in the most adorable way and his smile seems to lighten the entire loo up. after a second, he seems to stare at harry and harry returns the gaze awkwardly.

“hey! i know you! you’re the curly bloke who sang that stevie wonder song a while back for your audition didn’t you?” the boy exclaims, his curved eyebrows raised and hands clasping together.

harry nods, in awe of the boy whose expression shines brighter than stars.

the boy grins.

“well that’s it then, you’re getting passed to the next round for sure,” he tells him.

harry shakes his head quickly.

“are you nuts? i’ll probably get eliminated before i even finish the next assignment!”

the boy’s expression becomes puzzled.

“what are you talking about? you’re one of the most talented lads that’s in the competition this year!”

“did you see the way i tried dancing yesterday?” harry asks bashfully.

the honey haired bloke shakes his head.

“nah, but you’ve got nothing to worry about. you’re going to pass this round,” the boy says in a voice that’s so genuine that makes harry conclude that this boy is for sure not trying to just feed him words to make him feel better.

the boys turns the sink faucet on and begins rubbing foamy soap all over his hands. harry follows his action and does the same.

“louis tomlinson,” the boy states, extending his bony hand without even bothering to dry it off. harry doesn’t even care that his hand is dripping water because there’s something about this louis that makes everything he’s done seem so interesting and unique and admirable.

he rejects the gesture and goes in for a hug instead, which louis receives with open arms.

 

“harry styles,” he returns and louis giggles again- oh god.

after a couple of seconds hugging harry steps back from the hug and doesn’t know what to do next. he feels like a creep for hugging someone who he just peed on minutes before, so he awkwardly raises his hand for a wave and unable to form words mouths “see you” while leaving the bathroom.

and harry doesn’t feel any calmer at all.

if anything, his heart is beating twice as harder as before and his arms are tingling and if he has to do another dance number there is no question on whether his knees will give out.

he walks as fast as he can towards the line for information on when the new task is given out and he’s halfway there when-

“harry!” a familiar voice comes out. it’s the same bubbly voice with a yorkshire accent that he heard in the bathroom. “harry! wait!”

and it doesn’t take any longer for harry to stop and turn around to see louis running at full speed towards him with a camera in his hands.

“what’s up, louis?” harry offers.

“i need a picture with you, haz,” louis tells him, and it’s not even a question. harry’s insides warm up to the new nickname this stranger has given him. “you’re going to become big and famous and i need something to show off and brag to everyone!” and harry’s jaw gapes so widely that it almost reaches the floor in disbelief.

nonetheless, louis gets a random passing stranger to stop and take the picture for them.

“never forget your first fan!” louis exclaims while walking away.

harry ends up feeling a lot more comfortable and confident than before.

 

it’s the end of bootcamp and everyone’s nearly about to learn their fate in the competition. harry tries to be positive, but buried deep down by louis’ compliments are his doubts.

and if harry is completely honest with himself, his mind isn’t as preoccupied with his impending results of the competition as he was before. as much as it confuses him, his mind is an endless stream of louislouislouis and “when will i see louis again?” and it’s just something about that damn boy that lures him in.

they begin to call the names of the passed contestants out on the stage and he listens in for his name but as they near the bottom of the list harry’s blood runs cold and he knows, he just fucking knows that he hasn’t made it. and he doesn’t wonder why.

he knows that louis’ name wasn’t called on the list so far either, and he really doesn’t want to see that face of sunshine turn into a dreary rain.

he tries to keep himself together because there are cameras literally everywhere and he really doesn’t want to make more a fool out of himself than he already has, but before he knows it the lump grows in his throat as nicole scherzinger apologizes and suddenly he feels his tears swell up in his eyes and he decides to go looking for his mum. he just really wants to leave.

so that’s why when the judges call back ten people and he’s one of them, he nearly faints. an overwhelming feeling of hope crashes over him and he sees a group of girls huddled together and four other boys next to them, and as he joins them, he scans their faces and on one of them he finds golden skin with eyes the color of the sky and feathery brown hair that is all too familiar and they both can’t help but grin watery smiles.

it turns out the five boys were given the chance to continue on in the competition if they were performing as a group, and harry doesn’t know what this is if it isn’t fate.

and there’s no doubt about it when louis and harry are engulfed in each other’s arms just seconds later.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> well this is my first fic on here so please bear with me and excuse the lack of capitalization and the shortness haha(: follow me on twitter- @screwtattooo  
> tumblr- lindswix.tumblr.com


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